Hapless men and nagging women: The seven sexist film tropes that infuriate women

Actually, not all women do care more about getting a man than everything else

Wednesday 21 December 2016 14:21 GMT

Despite huge progress being made in recent years (thank you, Frozen) gender stereotypes and sexist tropes are still played out in a lot of films.

But people are tired of seeing the same characters and storylines over and over again that reinforce sexist views.

In a new discussion on Reddit, women have been sharing the sexist tropes they’re most sick of, and the main gripe is that nearly every female lead character has a romance plot, whereas male leads don’t.

Similarly, many people are tired of the storyline of a career-focussed businesswoman learning “the hard way that family and love is more important,” before quitting her job to get married or raise a child.

And it’s not just storylines but of course appearances where clichéd ideas of women prevail: “I friggin’ loathe it when women in action movies are wearing heels and tight, immobile leather and their hair is in perfect bouncy beach waves.

“Ain't nobody going into battle without a ponytail and practical footwear!” wrote one woman, perhaps with this year’s Suicide Squad in mind.

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

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1/12The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Anne Hathaway

The 32-year-old actress said she has already experiences job rejections because of her age. “Now I'm in my early thirties and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part? I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it, it's the way things are,” she told Glamour.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Helen Mirren

On news that Maggie Gyllenhaal had been turned down for being ‘too old’, aged 37, to play a 55-year-old man’s partner: “It’s f***ing outrageous. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, it’s so annoying. And ’twas ever thus. We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal revealed she was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, aged 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. “It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made feel angry, and then it made me laugh,” she said at the time.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep has helped fund an all-female screenwriters group called The Writer’s Lab to encourage more women to pen Hollywood scripts. She previously told Vogue in 2011: “Once women pass childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Emma Thompson

The actress said she thought Hollywood is “still completely s***” when it comes to treating women equally to men. ““When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world. And when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women, and I find that very disturbing and sad.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Elizabeth Banks

Banks said she was driven from acting to directing due to the lack of roles for older women in Hollywood. “"[Industry sexism] drove me to direct for sure. I definitely was feeling that I was unfulfilled and a little bit bored by the things that were coming across my desk. I mean look at Gwyneth Paltrow who has her Oscar [for Shakespeare in Love] and played fifth banana to Iron Man,” she told Deadline.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Viola Davis

“I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualised role in TV or film. I'm a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualised woman. I was the prototype of the ‘mommified’ role,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Liv Tyler

The Lord of the Rings actress said she only get cast in roles where she is treated as a “second class citizen” at the age of 38. “When you’re in your teens or twenties, there is an abundance of ingenue parts which are exciting to play. But at [my age], you’re usually the wife or the girlfriend - a sort of second-class citizen. There are more interesting roles for women when they get a bit older,” she told More magazine.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Cate Blanchett

The actress famously called out sexism on the red carpet at the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards. When a camera operator scanned her up and down, she said: “Do you do this to the guys?” In her Oscar acceptance speech for Blue Jasmine, she reminded the film industry that movies with leading women can still be successful. “And thank you to... those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the centre, are niche experiences. They are not -- audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Ellen Page

Asked if she had ever encountered sexism in Hollywood, Page told The Guardian: ‘Oh my God, yeah! It's constant! It's how you're treated, it's how you're looked at, how you're expected to look in a photoshoot, it's how you're expected to shut up and not have an opinion, it's how you... If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Zoe Saldana

The actress says she refuses roles where she has to play the generic girlfriend, wife or sexy bombshell. "It's very hard being a woman in a man's world, and I recognised it was a man's world even when I was a kid. It's an inequality and injustice that drove me crazy, and which I always spoke out against — and I've always been outspoken,” she told Manhattan magazine.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Charlize Theron

The actress spoke to ELLE about negotiating equal pay for the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel: "This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn't mean that you hate men. It means equal rights. If you're doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way."

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The classic “ugly guy gets hot girl” plot has been the main storyline in more films than one could count, but it seems people are fed up with the idea: “Beautiful women are partnered with Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Seth Rogen or someone who'd never have a chance with them in real life. You never see the opposite,” wrote one woman.

Many agreed that they wanted a film “where an ugly woman is paired with Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender or Chris Hemsworth, where it's just accepted and not a major plot point.”

Some people revealed that they know “plenty of ugly guys with hot girlfriends in real life,” but added that the problem is that films portray the less attractive men as awkward, boring and uncool whereas “the girls are hot and perfect”, which isn’t usually the case.

And another unrealistic couple expectation for a lot of people is the all too common pairing of a man with a significantly younger woman. “This drives me nuts,” said one woman, adding that 26-year-old Jennifer Lawrence’s recent movie pairs have been Chris Pratt (37), Bradley Cooper (41), Christian Bale (42), and Michael Fassbender (39).

Whilst some stereotypes reflect better on men than women, some do no favours for either gender, such as the idea of a “dumb”, useless, hapless father, married to his nagging, smarter and humourless wife.

“It’s revolting,” wrote one woman. And another added “I'm SO OVER the portrayal that men are morons.”

Because not all men are morons and not all women do nag, and we want to see that on screen.

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